Sunday, February 29, 2004

Doom 3 update | Goldeneye ported to PC!!!!

Date: 2/29/04 at 4:32PM



This is my Doom 3 update. There are a lot of sources off Google so this will be brief. Doom 3 is going to use bump mapping and sound data, shadows loaded with the pixels itself. Doom 3 will use 20 texture passes per second. This new technique is invented by ID Software. The game will be hugely polygon based. As many as 10,000 polygons on objects with their own bump map lighting. The games characters, bots will be bump mapped as well. I'm guessing that the textures will be 128-bit instead of 64-bit because I saw the screen shots, and they look beyond that of Half-life 2. The extra 64-bits will add more color, shadow, depth, a sharpness. Doom 3 will have lighting created in the game engine, and there will be no lighting effects or shadows loading with the map. For the first time ever, moving objects can also have shadows. ID software sounds like they'll be requiring a Pentium 4 2.0 Gigahertz PC with 256 MB of RAM, and a 128 MB graphics card to play Doom 3 at 800x600 at a good framerate. Doom 3 was presented at QuakeCON 2K3 powered by 128MB and 256MB Geforce and Radeons. Doom 3 will need triple much power as Neverwinter Nights because of the polygons. I don't want to blow your guy's brain so go to http://www.doomworld.com/doom3/ for a complete faq.



I know some of you loved Goldeneye, I know I have. I found out a stand alone game that will have the complete Goldeneye single player, and multiplayer running in high res on your PC. It looks like Wolfenstine. Found at http://goldeneye.new...m.com/download.shtml.



Otherwise, many of you may know, but there is also a Goldeneye port for Half-life avaliable at http://www.3ddownloa...elefragged/goldeneye I have the 1.11 patch, but this game will work with any patch dated after June 2000. Goldeneye 2 was just announced by EA Games this week, and it will be multi-platform. No news whether or not it will be developed for PC.

Friday, February 27, 2004

I want to learn flash | a look at UT2004 (fixed)

Date: 2/27/04 at 2:13AM



I met this guy from about a year ago on Diablo 2. We talk to each other, he's xwanyecoltx, and he is the top reviewer at newgrounds.com, a community full of flash movies. I usually don't go there often. I did yesterday, and really looked at it. I took my main interest Final Fantasy, and looked at some flash movies. Most of them are based on Final Fantasy 3. I like the Final Fantasy Trilogy. The cat scene was somewhat funny. The graphics are good, it's above and beyond me. Most of these designers have websites that are done in flash. I was trying to learn how to work in Macromedia Flash MX. I can move images around, but I can't do the effects. LOL! I'm no expert for sure! The zooming, the special effects with slash, the timing. I'm another notice at RPG developing. When I heard from him that I can use javascript for some of my effects, I felt better. I have the premiere software to work with, and I can't do a d*mn thing with it. XwanynecoltX got me interested in making flash.



I decided to put Cloud's Adventure on hold. If fact I don't even care for it. I can't find the correct number of characters that'll I'll need in the game. Sure, I have experience in making maps in Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament, and UT2003. I never worked with Milkshape or UT character editor to make models. I have attempted to transfer a UT2003 model to Neverwinter Nights using a add-on for NWN Design Studio. I have one map online <http://www.pressente...~scampbel/nwnmod.exe> I find that I'll have more fun creating NWN mods than anything else. UT2003 maps make no since to me, you develop the map, and you set start points, a couple weapon locations and debug. It's a first person shooter, you you frag people in a violent gory way for hours. I've been guilty in this way because I use to be a fps fanatic myself. I liked gory fps for a while. I agree MMORPGS, especially Neverwinter Nights, are more popular (and my favorite), and a bit more sane. Since then I have become a bit more sane. I did ask my parents about playing Final Fantasy XI online this week, and the answer is still no. I really want to play that game even if it costed 12 dollars a month. That's 144 dollars a year. I wish there was a offline mod for FFXI. I dunno maybe I'll play UT2003 online again with the lad lagacy. Lagacy is much better in NWN, but you never know, maybe the newer patches in UT2003 affect the frame rate?



Speaking of which, I was looking information on both Doom III and Half-life 2, and no new information is avaliable. There is very little known facts on the 'source engine' and what Half-life 2 map editor will use or if the rumor porting older Half-life models into Half-life 2 is true. The game will look great in 1600/1200 at 4 layers of anti-ayalasing with all effects on. Maybe it'll support 2000/1600 high res. It's rather pointless because graphics quality won't be that improved. Right now PCs haven't able to work well at that high of resolution. Most people now should at least be able to run at 1200/768 on their current machines. More than half of pc gamers (from a toll on Gamefaqs.com) have bought a new computer since 2001. That's nice. I know in 5 years we'll look back on today's games, and say how low resolution they look. I knew we said that about Unreal Tournament. It was in 1999 that UT was a huge game and state of the art graphics. I remember in 2000, I downloaded 200 maps in total off FileShack.com before they made you pay for their servers accessablity. I use to play the maps in deathmatch. Some worked some didn't, some made my computer crash. On the bigger maps, it wasn't uncommon for me to reset my resolution to 800/600 just to play the map at 30 frames a second. Not today, my computer is 10x more powerful than 5 years ago.



[ I messed up in this section. I have a Radeon 9800 in my Dell Deminsion XPS. A XFX Geforce 5600 in my custom-built pc ,and a XFX Geforce 5200 in my compaq which replaced my older Radeon 7000 ]



The Unreal Tournament 2004 demo is out now and the game is coming to stores on March 18th. It seems not long ago Unreal 2 was released. And I was kind-of hyped about getting that game because of the class A gameplay. It's okay, but not as fun as Unreal Tournament. If you like a story based first person shooter, this would be the game for you. Unreal 2 has deathmatch but I never once played it. My guess it's exactly like UT2003, but UT2003 is such a revolutionary first person shooter like the first. I got half way through it 1 month ago than stopped for whatever reason. Unreal 2 has been out nearly a year already. I know Bob was thinking of owning it. Why have him buy it when I can just give him a copy? The UT2004 demo is out, and of course with my connection, I haven't downloaded it. Rumor is that it'll play UT 2003 levels because both games use the same physics engine. UT 2004 features vehicles simular to WARTHOG in Halo. It's optimized using the ATI Radeon 9800 GPU. I own both a 256 MB Geforce 4 5600 Ti and ATI Radeon 9800. I recently installed the Geforce 4 5200 128 MB GPU in my Compaq (given to me 3 years ago in 2001). For months I thought it wouldn't work because I thought my Compaq was using a 4X AGP slot instead of the 8x AGP slot required to use the card. It never accured until now that my Geforce 4 works because it's backward compatible with 4x slots. I confused me because i stuck it in yesterday, and it worked. Before I had a XFX Radeon 7000 64MB GPU because that worked.



UT 2004 sounds like it will have space aged weapon optimized spacecraft so that in assault you can dog fight with everyone else. Another idea taking straight out of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.



One game that would be nice to have on my computer (from 1998) is the XGRacing 2 released on the PC in 1998 by Acclaim. It is a fast paced game featuring futuristic cycles racing on a track. I known the game for N64. And while it didn't get great reviews, I thought it was cool. The graphics were better then Xtreme G (1997 Acclaim) although the game play in XG2 was a bit worse. It was a Christmas present that year. The first game looked good considering it was a early N64 racing title. It was like Tron, but was much improved. The forth game released multi-platform called XGRA (Extreme-G Racing Association) is like Xtreme G 3. (I own XG3 for Gamecube) I read the reviews off IGN.com and they said the game had some errors, but what's interesting is the game itself at a 6 page developer interview at IGN.com. It got a 7.5 at IGN.com, and 7.8 at Gamespot.com. I read both reviews, and it seemed like Acclaim was trying to make this title a worthy sequel with harder AI, more vehicles, and tracks. I read the review and IGN.com said it was too customizable for it's own good and made the controls too unbalance making it a more difficult game any ways and less fun. If the gameplay was more balanced, the game may of been considered one of the better racers for any console. I want it for PC, and instead Acclaim made this title console exclusive. If I see this game for Gamecube/Xbox I'll buy it at an used price, therefore I save money. I already own other futuristic racers like FZero GX.



I haven't had time to play Knights of the Old Republic lately. KOTOR is a great game with state-of-the-art graphics Right now I am in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark because it's online. I'm going to play it after I finish writing this entry.



This is Ian signing off once again. Tune in 5 days from now to read my next review in my saga. Mean while, visit my webpage.



Thursday, February 26, 2004

I decided today I'm making a RPG myself!

Date: 2/16/04 at 7:40PM



I’ve been doing many things like hoping for someone to make it over, getting home late from WITC, and watching tv. No time to add an entry to this blog. On my website, I added a different mouse over image menu. It may not be state-of-the-art, but it looks cooler then when I had text for menus. On some high res screens the jpeg images look pixilated, that’s because image quality suffered for faster download speeds. You can find my website under the personal website link left of this page. I wasn’t sure if my website was age appropriate so I warned readers under 13 should not read it because I have some adult interests. I don’t mean about the “I’m in love and crazy about girls” part. I am 19, so therefore I can accept things better than most 12 year olds. If people don’t like it, I’ll change it back to how it was. First though, I have to have complaints though email feedback. Besides, I think everyone here is old enough. Don’t forget the guessbook!



And about myself - I haven’t changed much. I’m on the Internet eight hours a day, sure. I’m just surfing for games, gamefaqs, downloading MP3s over a modem, learning about processors specs. Working on my webpage mostly.



I remembering reading on Google, an article on “How to be an evil genius.” I really don’t know how I came across it. It had a lot of stuff about how to make your friends think that you’re in a dangerous situation, and how to make it an allusion or the absolutely right thing to do in any circumstance. Remember, most of this is just weird, and probably won’t work at all. I bet there’s a lot of the same thing around on the Internet. Have you seen the movie “Young Frankenstein” staring Gene Wilder? It was funny and kind of stupid and brilliant at the same time. At least, AMC couldn’t stop saying how brilliant it was after the movie credits. Maybe it was how the movie used the original set used in “Frankenstein.” (1931) The Gene Wilder movie was making fun of the original. Actually, I was trying to get the jest of the movie, there are a lot of crazy things in the movie I wanted to get out of it. This is where I think the phrase, “Evil Genius” originally came from Frankenstein….



I know people collect Square games and keep them. I want to promote my fan site. I haven’t updated the site for 2 1/2 months. After school, I went to the game store, first bought a PS2 Logitech Headset for 30 dollars. But Dad gave me 10 dollars, so I brought it back and got Final Fantasy Chronicles. (rare game for Playstation) I have a SNES. I bought one recently. It was a better deal to buy this remake than SNES versions. I played Chrono Cross through SNES 9x on Windows before, I am very familiar with it. I must have out smarted them because I know about ROMS. That would be cheating the game store though. I was nice, and now I have an authentic copy for once. I also own Final Fantasy Anthology. I have yet to buy Final Fantasy Origins. I updated my Square webpage with a ported review of Final Fantasy X-2. I don’t know whether or not I should add all the characters in that game to my site since so many other fan sites have it, and I can just link it too them. But than why build a fan site if you’re not going try to out perform other fan sites doing the same thing. Find my Square site at (http://www.renegadeviking.cjb.net). Thus, the endless cycle of improving and updating one’s page. Sign the guess book if you think it’s cool or sucks or needs work. It’s harder of me because I owned my first Squaresoft game 2 years ago. Now I have a total of 11 real copies of Squaresoft games cross platform.



So far, I have Final Fantasy I, II, III and XI Online on my computer. Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, and IX on Playstation. Final Fantasy X and X-2 on Playstation 2.

Here are the consoles I have thus far. I beat only Final Fantasy VIII and X. I’m working on X-2. And I own and beaten Chrono Cross. That was also a good game. I plan to play Final Fantasy VII for the first time after I get it back from Bob. I know that most Playstation owners prefer VII as their Final Fantasy game of choice. I hear it was revolutionary, but I just got a Nintendo 64 that year so pardon me about not hearing about it right away. I was into Super Mario 64, Zelda 64, and Goldeneye, three revolutionary games the same year. If I had a favorite, it would be Mario 64. It only takes 3 words to describe the perfect platform game and they are Super Mario 64. My favorite level was the first Jolly Jolly Bay level. The music was cool. The level was cool. I have two 3 ring binders full of N64 strategy guides. I completed that game 5 times back when I didn’t buy 3 or 4 new games a month. RPGs I’m looking toward are Star Ocean 3, Final Fantasy XII, and Chrono Break (3rd installment in Chrono Series)



Here are the game systems I owned thus far from 1997 - Present



Nintendo 64 (Christmas 1997) Dreamcast (09/09/99) Saturn (11/01/2000) Gameboy Advance (March 2001) Gamecube (November 2001) Playstation (January 2003) Xbox (June 2003) PS2 (October 2003) NES, SNES, GBA SP (December 2003) 100+ roms and emulators for cartridge based consoles back-up on CDR. I’m saving 300 dollars for Playstation 3 when I comes out in August 2005.



I need feedback on my Final Fantasy fan page (use my guessbook please) and my current webpage. So if you would be so kind to drop by and say a few words, that would be most helpful. Comment on the logo, the reviews (I have auto spell so spelling shouldn’t be an issue) or the content, or loading times (shouldn’t be a big issue) On some computers, the javascript loads behind the first mini-window. If this is a bug that needs squashing, let me know. It’s hard to come by automatic navigational menu compilers that are compatible with Geocities. I tried at least ten including AllWebMenus, and Xara menu maker is the only one that works to my knowledge.



I had this idea today where I could make my own RPG on the computer. But I don’t know what tools to use. I thought about using a rpg maker, but I would need to be know at least enough code to move characters across the screen. I hear that Armageddon Games, a nonprofit game developer that ported Legend of Zelda to the PC, was working on a Final Fantasy I and II port. I am probably not the first person to think of turning Final Fantasy into a platform game. My first project could be a Final Fantasy hybrid because there are many animated gifs on the Internet that are made after the games. Cloud Strife in a platform game, wouldn’t that rock! I’ll call it….drum role please….Final Fantasy 7 - Cloud’s Adventure. The story could star universally known character, Cloud Strife, finding a serum that would bring back Atheia from the dead. It will be like Super Mario Bros. for the NES using the enemies, and characters from FF VII. Right now, it’s not even in the planning stages. First, I will have to learn how to move images across the screen. I could attempt this and fail. Spend the whole summer trying to tweak it myself. Would it be popular freeware game or another mediocre freeware game? No, I’ll make it open source! How much time would I have to spend on it for it to be long enough to be enjoyable? I played a couple freeware RPG’s like Jennifer’s Quest, Dink Smallwood, and Laxis Power. I’m trying to figure out how I’ll do the combat system. Maybe I’ll just use the standard Super Mario hit / jump. Laxis Power was the best version of RPG I’ve played freely available. The game closely resembles Breath of Fire. Except for SNES ROMS, which I know some of you readers have on your PC in secret.



Sunday, February 22, 2004

Trojin Horse dumped my OS! Serious let down.

Date: 2/22/04 at 4:37AM



I've been found. A high profile virus hit one of my computers today. I kinda thought I was invisible because i had antivirus software. Anti Virus software can't do a d*mn if you can't get too it. I wouldof lost a lot of valuable website templates and graphics if I didn't have Linux on board. I could transfer my webpage files to a thumb stick! The computer was really slow. I had the command prompt working and the virus didn't let me open any executables including Norton Antivirus. This got me mad, I even swore out load. Don't feel bad Bob! Bob had the same problem - maybe's it's the same virus? I could of gotten it when downloading Gaim, although I don't see how Gaim could have a Trojan Horse. I dunno.

I got out today, went to Target, and bought a CD restorer. It gets rid of scratches on cds. It was 50 dollars. I had a couple Dreamcast games that didn't work so I used it to restore them, than there was this cd that I use on my computer a lot filled with pictures that I wanted restored. I always take real good care of all my discs.



Before my PC crashed, I was playing Diablo 2 for the majority of the afternoon. Diablo 2 is still rocking. Being out going, I was chatting with other players talking about coming consoles, Final Fantasy, PC specs. I did a couple bloody runs in act 5. I progressed from act3 to act 5. My amazon is level 50. I have this unique bow that does a lot of damage in nightmare. Hell's suppose to be more like Hell with the new patch. I remember dominating hell with amazons when I was really into the game. The hard part was trying to convense someone to give up high hp armor. I suppose that's true with everyone. ACT 4 was always the hardest level for Zons because the enemies near Diablo's sancenary can out number you easily. Duriel was also a very difficult, and timely point of the game.



Chatting with the right person in Diablo 2 is like finding a needle in a haystack. Most people just want to level up and don't really care who they party up with as long as it helps their game. Only rarely does a person really listen to your conversations. It feels like your talking to a brick wall sometimes when you're ignored. It helps when you know a lot about the game, and u know how to avoid getting killed often, even being the hero of the game saving other player's butt can make them have interest in you. That's the best part because than you can start asking for things you need, and half the time it works. Unless when it's really hard to find, then it's finders keepers. I learned that when I started playing the game 3 years ago.



Here are my favorite songs. Trance is my favorite genre at the moment:



1.) Trance - ATB and Paul Van Dyke rave mix - DJ Special K.mp3

2.) ATB- Sunscreen.mp3

3.) Cybernetik - Hardkore Reflektions.mp3

4.) Techno - ATB - Kaycee - Escape 2000 (New Club Mix).mp3

5.) paul van dyk - another way.mp3

6.) Mauro Picotto - Komodo (Megavoices Mix).mp3

7.) ministry of sound - rising star touch me.mp3

8.) Paul van Dyk - For An Angel.mp3

9.) DJ Sasha & John Digweed - Enjoy The Silence.mp3

10.) sasha and john digweed - age of love (trance dub & fantasy mix).mp3

11.) paul van dyk - forbidden fruit

12.) Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation ( ohohoh remix).mp3

13.) Psychobabble - Sirens of Trance.mp3

Saturday, February 21, 2004

I put Heidi Klum on my webpage today

Date: 2/21/04 at 2:55AM



Imaging website templates before you create them is hard work. I spent an hour on created a new logo (not the one from 4 days ago) for the 2004C template. I like Heidi Klum so she’s my main point of interest on the new site. Everything’s backwards compatible with my recent pages. I think this is much more exciting. Paint is a awesome tool if you use it right. At it’s core (website), there’s nothing new. Haven't added interesting pages anyways. I’m been making webpages since 1999, and I haven’t quite figured out if updating is the key factor or creating new templates is the key factor. Creating new webpages can make your site look nicer plus could make link checking easiler. Create all new links that day. I had this trouble building a webpage in July 2003. I had this cool webpage I made, spent a 1 week, and it’s still worst than the last template I made in February. Except I made many, many improvements, fixed links, too the eariler one. I find that updating new templates are much better practice. I worked on 4 new templates in 3 months. I believe the one I made in January was the best. But it comes somewhat close to version 3.0. Just look at the page.



I’m really excited for Dungeon Siege 2. I own Dungeon Siege, and I played it in 2001 and early 2002. I beat Dungeon Siege (both maps that came with cd), and the graphics were cool back them. Mediocre by today’s standards. The ability to equip yourself with a sturdy sword and shield is a good feeling. I kinda forgot about Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction after I played Dungeon Siege. It doesn’t look very good on faster computers. Niether was Diablo 2. Diablo 2 looked horrible but played well. It ran decently on my old 650 MHz (which I gave to my dad in 2001) Athlon Compaq Presario with 256MB of Ram and 32MB Geforce. Today I have a 64 MB Geforce 3, and it doesn’t look to much different than on my other computer with 256 Geforce. The difference is also 700 MHz. The polygon count must not exceed a certain amount. Not like Unreal Tournament 2003 which looks awesome on my Geforce 4 256MB. I run it at 1600/1200 res, with 3 layers of anti-analyzing on. It makes it look better than Unreal Champtionship for Xbox.



Speaking of RPGs, I have Neverwinter Nights, and I forgot about it . I mean one big advantage is it does run in 1600/1200 high resolution mode having 4 layers of Anti analyzing. I didn't have 'nice' 4 layers because it affected my performance just a tad. NWN runs great over a v.92 modem. I am very novice when it comes to that game. It's been weeks since I last played it with school going on and everything. I’ve been in combat but died quickly. My character of choice is the half-orc barbarian. I played the game today. I met this guy online. He helped he though the forgotten realms. I was playing Hordes of the Underdark. Everyone’s playing some sort of mod online. Less then half the games on the Internet come with the cd-rom. Half the time you have to download data files. My game version was out of date I had version 1.61 and it’s now version 1.62b2. It takes me about 20 minutes just to download the new patch. I usually download these big files over at school, and bring it home on my personal thumb stick. I got to play for about 3 hours before I got tired of doing nothing.



I got a new 40 Gigabyte internal hard drive for my computer. I think I will load Windows 98SE on it. I hate to waste an activation on Windows XP Pro Upgrade CD which is running on my 120 GB 7200 ATA harddrive. Windows 98SE is free. There is this device that lets you switch between 3 hard drives, and I want that device. You can find it off Tigerdirect.com. I have 2 hard drives installed, and I’ll install the new one maybe tomorrow. Fun, more space to full with MP3s. I only have about 6 Gigabytes of them. 37 GB – 6 GB - 600 MB for Win98 = 30.4 GB of free space. That’s still a lot of space. On my Dell, I have a 114 GB Scuzzy Drive (super fast hard drive). I could store all my games I want to play including entire MP3 collection with about 85 Gigabytes left of free space. I have 3 computers (5 hard drives) so 15.5 GB + 112 GB + 109 GB + 37GB + 37GB = 310.5 GB of free space.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Knoppix is the best self boot Linux in exsistance

Date: 2/10/04 at 7:08PM



My dell is okay now. Not that I was going to have a heart-attack, but it scared me half to death. Unknown to me at the time, it has a RAID hard drive. It shouldn’t make any difference, but it does. I called tech support, and the guy on the phone said turn your RAID setting off, and set Primary drive to AUTO. That would do her, I installed WINXP PRO back on, and it’s awesome to have it working. I found out that Norton Antivirus and PSP 8.0 came with the DELL as free software. At school, our class ran out of “linux boxes” so Steve gave us Knoppix. Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net) boots off CD, and runs the KDE desktop. Hmm. Very cool. Read my review (text) at http://www.geocities...s101/knoppix3.3.html. It’s cool because I can do my assignments on almost any computer. Steve told me that if Knoppix gets to 4.0, he’ll call up his tech buddy, and tell him to download the huge 740+ MB ISO file. The OS seems to use every bit of 700 MB the CD gives it.



I wonder when Bob can come over again? Wednesday is a free day for me, and it would be fun for us to play some games. He has a job to keep, and books to study, all at the same time. Bob, you see, uses computers only for the Internet, chat and word processing. I am willing to give him Knoppix, but I don’t think he’ll take it. He doesn’t like Linux now. He had it on his computer for a short time. Mandrake 6.0 is not the best Linux version. He, of course, couldn’t get it too work well on his machine (he was only running 300 MHz with 64 MB of RAM in 1999), but he got access to the Internet, and ICQ worked. I have Mandrake Linux 6.2 (older Linux, like 1999 or something) and those things aren’t easy to install. I tried installing it just for the heck of it a few months back. I couldn’t get pass the real mode part of it. This was an early REAL MODE build of Mandrake Setup.



And Bob - I really do think your webpage is funny. Just that I wish u change your stories. How about u be a popular rockstar. You’ll be the next Metallica! U can still have your super hero adventures - but a rock star - that would be much cooler! Hey man, just giving you some ideas. That would be you. I’ll be your drummer. Okay. Say I’m the best gull darn drummer in the whole gull darn world. I bet your ratings would go higher, twice than normal! We’re playing Paint it Black okay Bob!?! Say your latest cd sold 4 million copies the first day!



Alright already, I’ll stop talking about Linux. My friend came over two days ago. It’s probably the best fun I had the whole week. Not everyday do I get to play videogames with a friend. We played soccer and each won 2 games. The first two games were 0-0. We had a goalie shoot-out after the two over times. Guess who won? Me! In Randy’s opinion, FIFA 2002 was better then Winning Eleven 6 although he mentioned the players weren’t as ‘smart’ as Winning Eleven 6. We had a hard time scoring goals. Our balls were either two high or no where near the net. LOL! That wasn’t all we played, others were Project Gotham (Xbox), Midnight Club II (Playstation 2), Toyko Extreme Racer 3 (PS2) Mario Kart Double Dash (GCN) and Super Mario Bros. (NES) Randy still plays his NES at home all the time so he’s good at it. He can make it to level 8.3. He knows where the secret bean stock is in 4.2 so he teleports to 8.1. I’m still in 4.1. I take the secret pipe area in 2.1. Die on the spot! I have 0 lives, and he has 6 or more lives at the beginning of 8.2, then he dies 6 times after that. Now that I own an old school console, I don’t want to play it. It’s one of those ‘I have it now; I can concentrate on today’s games’ day. The console is as old as I am. Randy and I should eventually play SMB through JNES which comes with a LAN/Ethernet option for player 2. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE T!



Tomorrow, I’ll have to start writing a script for Justin and myself. Justin is my partner for Network Cabling, one of my classes at WITC. Although what we do isn’t important, it’s important that the script be at least 15 minutes long. Reading very slow will just confuse people. Fiber Optic cable really amazes me. That’s my report! We are doing a long essay on it. It can transfer 2 GB of data per second! That’s state-of-the-art I think. The CAT IV COAXIL cables that WITC uses, you’ve guessed it, are very weak in comparison. However, it’s still incredibly fast. I don’t think I could find enough downloads to make it worth while. I click Download, 2 Seconds later I’m done. Find another page, another download. You get the general idea here. I have dial up, so everything’s fast too me. But you know, having 160 KB transfer rates can only provide so much. Confused? Our school has fast Internet, but not as fast as I would like. It should be faster! Like 512KBPS or 1 MBPS. However, I don’t think that will be possible for another 3 years at least. Just by how the funding goes.

Saturday, February 7, 2004

My PC had the crash of the century. Read more....

Date: 2/7/04 at 1:39PM



Hi, everybody. Yeah know what happened to me today? I went to a Eagle Scout ceremony. It wasn't half bad. Just that I never were friends with Rance. Long ago when I was a boy scout, he came in, since his dad was the big cheese, the Scout Master, he was usually commanding us around. But that was okay, someone had to make decisions. A good example is when we planned campouts. All I had to do is describe it. Rance had to organize it. I know how it was, I was Patrol Leader too. There was this kid bugging me, made me feel crazy, so I quit scouts all together. I left scouts when I was turning 17, and just reached Life Rank (not lying here.) It wasn't the really the kid that bugged me at times when I was slow in speech. I hated to be slow in thought. It was that I haven't really did my part as a scout. I was scribe and Patrol Leader for 7 weeks. Not the best one either. I could make decisions, but that's about it. I couldn't teach how to do knots (except for a few) or calm the younger kids down. You get the idea. I know I wasn't good because I wasn't voted in The Order of the Arrow. I wanted to be, but I was never elected. Well I thought, it's time to leave. Well, it's 2 years later, and I'm too old for scouts. I'm probably the only guy from the troop long ago that will be at his ceremony. I haven't seen Rance for over a year. I hear he's kinda immature for his age now. So I was iffy on whether or not I would go. So I go.



(3 Hours Later) I got back from the Eagle Ceremony. Bob, Joe, Justis, and former scouts were there. I said hello to a couple of them, told them about my school what I do. I couldn't began to talk about how I hate Microsoft sometimes. I talked to some people about using MS Windows to play games and surf the Internet. I'm know I'm not like most adults who don't play computers and Linux. Then I left. I didn't want to spoil Rance's fun. I felt like I couldn't say anything good to him. I went just to see him be awarded. I felt like I was going to embarrass myself talking why I left. I was a little interested on why there was a teenager wearing a SCC letter jacket. I pretended I didn't know him. State Reps and boy scout board members were also there. I just didn't feel up to speaking to all of the people i use to know.



Today, I tried to install Linux on my Dell. Something went wrong, and now I can't access Windows XP. I put in Redhat Installation CD tried to load a driver to recognize the hard disk. It was Intel driver that worked but then froze. So I then tried renaming all the drives to NTFS so that the drives could be combined, which worked. But Windows XP still didn't boot. My last choice is try to install Windows XP again, and use the cds to reinstall the software. I found out Dell computers are actually anti-Linux machines. The process should of went smoothly when I re disputed free space for Linux with Partition Magic. P.M.8 is the best there is. So today will suck trying to reinstall all the games / programs on it. But I know it can be done, that's the best turnout. I installed Linux a dozen times, and this never happened.



Life has been really good lately. The computer was just a minor set back. I'm only lost 1 of 3 computers I have access too. If the worst happens, I won't lose much data. My last backup was one week ago. I think I'll do my Micro Operating Systems II homework tonight because nothings going on 'till tomorrow.



Going to play Final Fantasy X-2 tonight, game store tomorrow. Yes, I know I've been on that title forever (over two months). I haven't completed that game yet. I want to see if Yuna mets Tidus or if she falls for someone else. If I had a choice if I liked Final Fantasy X or FFX-2 better, I would defiantly pick FFX-2. It has minor improvements, plus your character has more freedom on where to go. Freedom and less lunar gameplay makes games more interesting and more fun. FFX had some very hard bosses. While that Boss at the end of Zanterkan was very hard in FFX-2, it didn't stop me from beating him. I like FFX and FFX-2 because u can do a lot of magic combos that do good damage. Though, in my opinion, Final Fantasy X for Playstation 2 had a better script. The number of save spheres in the game were there when you needed them. I rate FFX script a 5/5 but I give FFX-2 a 3/5 for script. The story probably isn't as deep as Metal Gear Solid, but isn't to bad. In both games, my reason to play them both are watching the cut scenes because they did make good use of the physics engine. This is something I admire in a game



Now Readers, I am proud to present Gaming, -again -



I want to go to the game store, and buy a game called Winning Eleven 6 for PS2. But i don't think they will have it used. I only have one other soccer game and that's FIFA 2002 for Gamecube. I use to play it a lot. And I gotten rusty on the gameplay so why just play it again. It's free. Perhaps I'll make time before homework to play a couple soccer matches. We don't have Fox Sports World so I don't get to see soccer ever. I never ask my dad because he hates soccer. He's a big Vikings fan.



Comments on Winning Eleven 6: So far it looks really cool. On the box, the header has "The Worlds Best Soccer Game is coming to North America." I knew that Winning Eleven was a big series in Europe and Japan. It was on the #2 spot last year for 2 months. I played both FIFA 2002 and this game. This game looks a little more animated (although FIFA 2002 had better graphics on Gamecube). I tried out the training section, and the game told me which buttons to push for what moves. If you own a Playstation 2, this is a good buy! It's not a cheap, buggy game, it's as good as any of EA Sport's soccer games. Trust me on this!

Monday, February 2, 2004

Jeep back, more bad weather, missing two credits

Date: 2/4/04 at 12:51AM



My comments on the Super Bowl are I caught a glance at the Patriots rejoicing at the end and went to bed. It’s nice playing in a state-of-the-art football stadium like Houston. This team also won the 2002 Super Bowl. Minnesota Vikings Running Back Carl Eller got into the Football Hall of Fame today (7th Hall of Famer for the Vikings.) I never heard of the him. Hmm, I wonder if the Vikes will get their act together for the 2004 season. Again they’ll most likely win the first game and maybe the second. But mid-season they’ll just plunge to the bottom of the chart. I don’t think coaching has anything to do with it. The group doesn’t seem focused on the game and they make stupid mistakes like Dante under throwing the football and 50 yard passes to Randy Moss. One things for sure, the Vikings turned all offense, and that’s not like them. Historically the Vikings have been better defensive then offensive.



Well I am just puzzled that I forgot about the 2004 Daytona 500. This was the Winston cup, but there is also the Nextel Cup, featuring Nascar drivers one class below. All seems the same to me. I don’t have any favorite Nascar drivers myself. Sometimes the Daytona 500 isn’t always 500 laps. One year it was cut short in recent history because of thunderstorms. The name Daytona 500 just sticks to it. It reminds me of Daytona USA (Daytona USA 2 in arcades) for Dreamcast. I miss that game. The classic arcade game is really fun. Some day when the arcade game disappears from arcades I’ll buy it from an antique dealer at a great price, put it in my house and play on it. It’s interesting I haven’t seen Daytona USA 2 at Aladdin’s Palace (arcade in Maplewood Mall) when I went with my friend Bob and his friend Angie. My reasons are that it’s a game with the same backbone of the original. I am very fond of the orginal. It has that arcade feel and I just felt good sitting behind the wheel and spending a dollar on a race. I'm not a expert driver though. Daytona USA 2 has high resolution graphics, more tracks, better soundtrack, and nicer screen. Only reason I know about it was it is at the local Wal-mart. Daytona USA 2 is very similar to Rush 2049 (Atari racer in Arcades). Other Nascar games I own are Nascar ‘99 for N64, Nascar Thunder 2003 for Xbox, and Daytona USA for Saturn. Daytona USA for Saturn the least favorite of them all. It’s going to odd come 2005 not seeing Sega as a major cotenant in the console race. I’m sure there are many people favoring Playstation 3, and that’ll leave no room for Sega.



The college caught me with my pants down again. (another figure of speech) This time it was that I enrolled in a class I never went too this year. Now I can’t go to it because class has been going on for 3 weeks. It was basically a class I took before in high school. WITC has this particular class set up as a 3 credit course. I am waiting for my youth options course to transfer over to WITC to replace this 3 credit course. That’s that story. If it doesn’t then I am going to look for another excuse for missing this class. Okay, the problem isn’t that I missed the class. The problem is I took this class during high school, missed an important Spanish class (so I can’t speak Spanish now), and now WITC may / may not except my C+ grade. My high school wanted me in college. You know what WITC told me, “Well Ian. At least you can do it over again better!” I didn’t know whether or not to get mad at the WITC consoler who dragged me into this, and basically said, “You don’t have enough credits to be half-time. Come see me tomorrow. Have a nice day.”



I got my Jeep today. It looked better then I thought. My views were it would be multicolored with a black grill and black side panel over the right wheel. The door doesn’t shut as well as it did before the crash. But Jeff Johnson’s Autobody in Hudson did a superb job on fixing it up. I’m really happy to be moble again. The weathers about 3 degrees above freezing. More hydroplaining on the roads. May be dangerous tomorrow.



This is Ian signing off.....

Sunday, February 1, 2004

Everyday surfing a new experience, everday a broad

Date: 2/1/04 at 3:52AM



Hello world. It’s me again creating my 25th wonderful blog of myself. I created a new quote “Everyday surfing a new experience, everyday a broader understanding of music.” I made it up myself. I’ll translate, it means, “Everyday I try a different song, the more songs I listen too, the more I know which ones I like the most.” Every days a new experience. Thanks to the Internet I have songs I never thought I listen too and like. I rediscovered a new group of radio station from Yahoo’s Launch Radio. It’s a lot like Live365.com.



Bob, his friend Angie, and I went to the mall today. It was more fun to hang around Bob then most days. I went into Hot Topic for the first time. It would be hard to describe. At first appearance, the hard metal was disturbing. The room was filled with Slopknot, Iron Maiden t-shirts, a lot of piercing and odd bumper stickers. I had to leave it, Bob wouldn’t leave. Because I wasn’t causing trouble, everyone could see that, maybe this crowd would just vanish. That wouldn’t mean Bob would have to vanish with them, but he looked like he’s use to this place. Any how, Angie’s the more silent type of females. She hasn’t spoken one word to me today. I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of Bob. She’s not in high school and doesn’t act like one either. Then Bob, her, and I walked into Spencer. I heard the name somewhere before. Small world, heh? See, it was full of expensive clocks with neon lights. I wanted those neon clocks, but seventy dollars for a small clock like that. Of course, no! That is defiantly price gouging I think. Then, I look on the other shelf and saw a weird clock 50% off, and it didn’t look half as good as the neon clocks I saw.



Time passed, I went over to Suncoast and bought a couple DVDs. First was Man with no Name trilogy (Clint Eastwood) and then I got 10 John Wayne B movies. It was that choice or games. I also wanted Final Fantasy 7 for the PC, that’s a really old game. That game should only be 14 bucks used I had the money. Hey I thought, Wow I getting 10 John Wayne movies for 40 dollars, what a bargain! Just as I said before. Clint Eastwood acts like John Wayne sometimes. Did anyone see a lot of similarities between The Shootist and Unforgiven? Dad said the John Wayne movies I got weren’t his good ones. I was disappointed.



School on Monday. I have to study for a test like every week after this. It’s not hard – just he basics of taking apart computers. But soon it will be harder. It will get in depth and talk about all the buses and microchips on a motherboard. I know where most of them are. I want to do well in this class. Classmates are treating me well, that’s good. Sometime I want to invite them over for a lan party. I feel shy towards that because they don’t know me too well. They know me through class discussion. One question I have to ask myself everyday is, do these guys want me to know them. This is the only way I am going to get a further education so I mustn’t back down. Somehow I feel forced into college, like something isn’t right? I want to go to college so nothing should be wrong? Maybe I should be in a different class? But why start over, it’s only going to be the same curriculum over again. Interesting though, I had this same experience in 10th grade.